The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-07-21
Prohibition in Kansas.

Prohibition in Kansas.
CHICAGO, July 13.-On the I'd Of July
inst. special dispatch was sent from St.
Joseph, Mo-, to a Chicago paper, in which
it was stated that the closing of saloons
in Atchison, Kansas, has cut of the most
profitable source of freyenue. amounting
to thousands of dollars year, and as
result the city has not revenue enough to
keep goingj that the police force, with
the exception of the marshal and one
policeman had been suspended; that the
services of the fremen we're to be dis
pensed With, and that gas and electric
light were to be shut off. This dispatch
having had wide publication, many let
ters of inquiry have been received by
Governor MARITIME, of Kansas, and by the
Mayor of Atchinson. Under the date OF
July 18th, Governor MARITIME addressed
a communication to Hon. VIM. Henry
Smith, General Manager of the Asso'
ciated Press, in which he says:
L am thoroughly familiar with the
condition of the city of Atchison and
personally know that the statements
embodied in the St. Joseph dispatch are
false and misleading. The gas, electric
light and water supply Of the city has
never been turned off, its police depart
ment has been, and Is, continually on
duty. The police force has been largely
reduced, but has, in the absence of sa.
looms, been ample to preserve the peace
and protect the property of citizens. A
local dispute concerning the methods Of
taxation and involving the adoption of 8
tax. which has been collected in the city
ofSt. Joseph for many years past, is the
only foundation for the malicious and
uutruthful dispatch from that place.
~ This St. Joseph dispatch is only
q fair specimen of hundreds of false and
malicious statements I have seen pub.
lished in the newspapers of the country
during the past three or four years con-
corning Kansas and Kansas towns. The
whiskey interests predicted that the abo.
lition OF saloons in Kansas would inju-
riously affect the material prosperity of
the State, and falsehoods intended to
confirm this view are constantly invented
and circulated in every section of the
country, and especially in the States
where movements are being made to ban.
ish saloons. am receiving letters daily
from different States making inquiries
concerning the effects and results of our
temperance laws on the financial, com.
mercial and other material interests of
our State and these letters all indicate
that the work of maligning Kansas is
going on in every section Of the country.
Permit me, therefore, to give you the
real facts. The prohibition amendment
to our constitution was adopted in the
autumn of 1850, and the first laws to
enforce it went into effect in May, 1881.
The war to Danish saloons was, for some
years, only partially successful. The
amendment had been adopted by very
meagre majority, and public sentiment
in all our large cities was overwhelming
against it. As late as January, 1885,
saloons were open in fully thirty Of the
larger cities of Kansas, including Topeka,
the capital of the State, but steadily and
surely public sentiment against them
spread and intensified. The snail ma.
iority that had voted for the amendment
was reinforced, first by respecting
citizens, who are always willing to subor-
dinate their personal opinions to the
majesty of the law, and, second, by an
equally large number who observing the
practical good following the abolition Of
saloons in different cities and towns, be-
came convinced that Kansaa would be
more prosperous, happier and in all re-.
spects better community of people if
it had not an open saloon within its
borders. Sn the sentiment of Kansas
against the liquor traffic has grown and
strengthened until to-day, very much
doubt whether of its 300, 1000 male voters
more than $4,000 would, if they could,
invite back and reinstate the saloons.